A motley cable soon Pat Jennings ties, JAMES SMITH. THE CATARACT OF LODORE. DESCRIBED IN RHYMES FOR THE NURSERY. "How does the water There first came one daughter, As many a time For their recreation From its sources which well In its own little lake. Helter-skelter, Here it comes sparkling, And there it lies darkling; Now smoking and frothing Its tumult and wrath in, Till in this rapid race On which it is bent, It reaches the place Of its steep descent. The cataract strong Its caverns and rocks among; Dizzying and deafening the ear with its sound. Collecting, projecting, Receding and speeding, And shocking and rocking, And darting and parting, And threading and spreading, And whizzing and hissing, And dripping and skipping, And hitting and splitting, And shining and twining, And rattling and battling, And shaking and quaking, And pouring and roaring, And waving and raving, And tossing and crossing, And flowing and going, And running and stunning, And foaming and roaming, And dinning and spinning, And dropping and hopping, And working and jerking, And guggling and struggling, And heaving and cleaving, And moaning and groaning; And glittering and frittering, And gathering and feathering, 中 BY THE HON. EDWARD E, OF BOSTON. PONDEROUS projectiles, hurled by heavy hands, On the great path that to her greatness led; Retreating and beating and meeting and sheeting, Recoiling, turmoiling and toiling and boiling, And rushing and flushing and brushing and gushing, And flapping and rapping and clapping and slapping, Yet, thanks to saving Grace and Washington, This fine production is rather heavy for an "anthem," and contains too much of Boston to be considered strictly national. To set such an "anthem" to music would require a Wagner; and even were it And curling and whirling and purling and really accommodated to a tune, it could only be whistled by the twirling, populace. We now come to a NATIONAL ANTHEM. BY JOHN GREENLEAF W. My native land, thy Puritanic stock Preserv-ed Fish, the Deacon stern and true, The sectional bias of this "anthem" renders it unsuitable for use NATIONAL ANTHEM. BY DR. OLIVER WENDELL H A DIAGNOSIS of our history proves To love it more, behold how foreign shores The committee must not be blamed for rejecting the above after reading thus far, for such an "anthem" could only be sung by a college of surgeons or a Beacon Street tea-party. NATIONAL ANTHEM. BY RALPH WALDO E. SOURCE immaterial of material naught, Focus of light infinitesimal, Sum of all things by sleepless Nature wrought, Of which abnormal man is decimal. Refract, in prism immortal, from thy stars This "anthem" was greatly praised by a celebrated German scholar, but the committee will feel obliged to reject it on account of its too childish simplicity. Here we have a NATIONAL ANTHEM. BY WILLIAM CULLEN B-—. THE sun sinks softly to his evening post, And not a sunset stripe with him goes down. So thrones may fall; and from the dust of those New thrones may rise, to totter like the last; But still our country's nobler planet glows, While the eternal stars of Heaven are fast. Upon finding that this does not go well to the air of "Yankee Doodle," the committee feel justified in declining it; being further. more prejudiced against it by a suspicion that the poet has crowded an advertisement of a paper which he edits into the first line. Next we quote from a NATIONAL ANTHEM. BY N. P. W. ONE hue of our flag is taken Its blue is the ocean shadow And still for a Union flies. Several members of the committee find that this anthem has too much of the Anacreon spice to suit them. We next peruse a NATIONAL ANTHEM. BY THOMAS BAILEY A. THE little brown squirrel hops in the corn, And the shad in the river springs; If Maud did not love me. I love the squirrel that hops in the corn, I love the dainty sunflower, too, I love them all; but I love - I love- This is certainly very beautiful, and sounds somewhat like Tennyson. Though it may be rejected by the committee, it can never lose its value as a piece of excellent reading for children. It is calculated to fill the youthful mind with patriotism and natural history, beside touching the youthful heart with an emotion palpitating for all. We close the list with the following: |